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Confederate heroes have own medal of honor

The grave of Confederate Medal of Honor recipient James Breathed. Breathed, a major in the 1st Virginia Cavalry, practiced medicine in Hancock after the war. He is the 50th recipient of the medal awarded by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a private group.

Confederate Medal of Honor

HANCOCK, Md. — The Medal of Honor has a Confederate counterpart.

The Confederate Medal of Honor has been posthumously awarded 50 times since 1977 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to fighters for the South who distinguished themselves in battle.

The most recent recipient is Maj. James Breathed, a native Virginian buried in Hancock, Md. Breathed was honored last year for bravery in the 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia.

Rebel heroes will be celebrated this spring at state Confederate Memorial Day observations across the South, starting this weekend in Georgia.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, representing the nearly 3,500 U.S. medal recipients, says it doesn’t care about the Confederate medal program — as long as it doesn’t pretend to be the federal one.